|
|
|
|
|
The match begins Terror and peace |
|
|
Making ‘Swachh Bharat’ a success
The aftermath of the assassination
Fading of a famous voice and ghazal
|
The match begins With the addition of 21 ministers Prime Minister Modi can no longer boast of having a “minimum government”. He has rewarded merit and loyalty, and also allowed parochial, caste and electoral considerations to influence the choice. Manohar Parrikar has a clean image. That alone qualifies him for the Defence portfolio, though he is also an IITian and a no-non-sense administrator. Suresh Prabhu is a good choice for Railways, though his known expertise is in power and environment. Deserted by the Shiv Sena, Prabhu, a chartered accountant, is expected to deliver whatever job he is given and Modi has big plans for the Railways. Jat leader Birender Singh has got Cabinet rank, while the other Haryana Congress deserter, Rao Inderjeet Singh, remains a junior minister. The induction of Himachal’s JP Nadda, once tipped to head the BJP, as expected, while Anurag Thakur's disappointment is understandable. Modi has given below pass marks to some who failed to meet his performance demands. Prominent in this category is Sadananda Gowda, who has lost Railways. Harsh Vardhan has been deprived of Health, though some see the change as a blow to his efforts to rid the Medical Council of India of corruption. Prakash Javadekar has been stripped of I&B, which now goes to a more suave Arun Jaitley. The change is attributed to the government's embarrassment over the black money affidavit. The BJP is keen to spread its footprint and capture large states. In the process it has catered to narrow regional and caste interests and gambled on novices. First-time MPs have been entrusted with serious responsibilities. If they fail to deliver, consequences for the party too would be serious. What message has the Prime Minister sent by including in his team Giriraj Singh, who earned notoriety by suggesting that Modi opponents should be packed off to Pakistan? The BJP-Shiv Sena standoff sends a clear signal to the NDA partners that no one can dictate terms to Modi. A strong, opinionated leadership is playing with a not-so-strong, docile team. It will be interesting to watch the game.
|
|
Terror and peace The
Punjab Police have in the past week reported major arrests of suspected terrorists. Some of these were the result of pursuing trails for years, and with the cooperation of national and international security agencies. A few suspects were picked up from Thailand and Malaysia. More information on terror activities is expected. The police's success is commendable. The developments come as a reminder of how terror remains an ever-present threat. ‘Sikh terrorists’ — if they can be called that — today have little support among the masses in Punjab, but a few left-over separatist elements and individuals driven by either a personal sense of revenge or plain monetary incentive persist in their effort to disturb the peace. A constant vigil has to be thus maintained. In the wake of reports of the BJP not playing along with SAD in Punjab, Chief Minister Badal made a few statements to the effect that it was in the interest of peace and harmony in the state that the alliance should continue undisturbed. Coming as it did just before the terror arrests were announced by none less than the DGP himself, there seemed a disguised threat in the Chief Minister's statement — either the BJP backs SAD or there would be disturbance. This is a dangerous attempt at blackmail. In a democracy no party can assume to be the sole keeper of peace. Also in a secular country like India no party can claim to represent any one religious community. Neither does the BJP represent just the Hindus nor SAD the Sikhs. All parties are sworn to a secular agenda before they contest elections. Punjab no longer has open wounds, but the scars are shallow. Badal should pay heed to his own counsel that the state has to be treated with sensitivity; he should refrain from mixing a purely security threat — which is what terror is — and politics. Both the Centre and state governments have to make an effort to assuage the hurt that many among the Sikh diaspora bear in their hearts, and bring them home to peace.
|
|||||
|
Thought for the Day
If I am what I have and if I lose what I have who then am I?
—Erich Fromm
|
|||||
WE are all grateful to the Government of India for the beginning they have made in supplying us with some news about the part taken by the Indian troops in the war on the Franco-Belgian soil. They have communicated to us the opinions of the Corps Commander, the Commander-in-Chief and other eminent men who are able to judge their conduct. It is due to the sympathetic and enthusiastic interest of His Excellency the Viceroy in the doings of the Indian troops in action. This is fully brought out in Sir' James Wilcocks' letter to His Excellency dated 8th October which has been placed at the disposal of the Press. The high terms in which Sir James speaks to the health and discipline of the troops may be taken to justify the Viceroy's decision in sending Indian troops. It will be noticed in particular that Sir James is careful to mention that "the men are fast realising the changes in their environments"— a trait which he also described in a telegram to the Commander-in-Chief as "extraordinary." The Punjab National Bank Ltd
AT a general meeting of the shareholders held on Sunday last it was unanimously decided to raise the capital of this Banks from Rs. 20 lakhs to 50 lakhs and to issue Rs. 10 lakhs for the present, first to existing shareholders and then if any shares are left over, to the general public. The Punjab National Bank is one of the few Indian enterprises that have weathered the financial storm and not unnaturally the trade and industry of the Province turns to it for assistance. Secondly the general body of depositors also looks for ampler security in proportion to increase in the amount of deposit. The directors are to be congratulated on their decision to raise the capital.
|
Making ‘Swachh Bharat’ a success The first task undertaken when one sets up a new home or office is to clean it. In that sense, the “Swachh Bharat” project is just the right “kadam”. But more than a month into the campaign, cynicism brushed aside, if one were to predict the outcome, the probability of it in its present form sustaining beyond photo ops and delivering the goods is low. The likelihood of it ending as a “me-too” exercise is relatively high. The recent incident of a clean place being littered so that somebody could later on pose with the broom is probably not just a one off. All this would mean biting a few bullets because it could annoy a few sections and sectors. The first would be the resistance to private players being roped in for waste management and the second quarter from which resistance could come are producers of non-recyclable materials. A little more thought and effort in the direction of awareness, rehabilitation, subsidies and technologies for new set-ups would avoid even rubbing these sections and sectors the wrong way. The next level would then be mechanised sweeping, which means a lot of grants to corporations for acquiring and maintaining machines and then monitoring the use of the same. The devil, as it is said, lies in the detail and that is only where it can be fought. Those states that have chalked out waste management plans but develop cold feet before rolling the ball need to be goaded to go ahead and those who have not even started thinking on these lines need to be pulled up. Another aspect that has been overlooked is the industrial poison, the people already “making in India” have been injecting into Mother Earth and pumping into rivers and streams. Without monitoring the disposal of industrial waste, the “Clean India” project would be plain tokenism. The second shortcoming is the uninspiring ad campaign. A project as enormous as this obliges a mindset. Although personal cleanliness is given due emphasis among most sections and across most parts in the country, commitment to clean public spaces is lacking, to say the least. Over the decades, the attitude has become bad to worse. The awful habit of spitting in public has caught on even in those parts of the country where it used to be a rare sight. People who hold on to peels while travelling or throw trash in a poly bag and empty it out only in a bin are more rarefied than ever. So low are the levels of civic sense that one holds on to a toll receipt all the way up and half the way down but after exiting the booth, out goes the slip. Maybe, a small piece of paper becomes too heavy to carry home! And of course not to forget the not-so-clean roadsides the pets leave behind. Either one is inherently civil or has to be conditioned into becoming one. The latter is much easier if done at an early age, but even if that stage has been missed, it is never too late. The efforts though have to be more pronounced. A change in mindset requires an imaginative, innovative, informative and sustained propaganda through the electronic and other media. The logo, the tagline and the concept of the present campaign is, on the risk of sounding too harsh, amateur. The whole campaign revolves around a grateful nation's tribute to Mahatma Gandhi on his 150th birth anniversary in 2019. The need to keep self and surroundings clean has been emphasised since times immemorial. It is a universal concept and need not be related to any individual. From the excavations of its cities it is apparent that even in the Bronze Age civilisation of the Indus valley, people had designed their cities and houses in a way that would ease maintenance of clean spaces. All religions, probably without exception, regard personal hygiene as the first step to the purity of soul, and many of them even put a lot of emphasis on general cleanliness. Cleanliness influences hygiene, health, aesthetics and beyond. The stress should be on highlighting the rewards of a clean environment, the ways in which a simple thing like cleanliness can solve compound issues, and the impending dangers posed by the lack of it. The campaign should be one that informs and inspires. The present one lacks both the elements. Along with fine-tuning mindsets, authorities will also have to consider fining pockets of those who fail to get inspired, embarrassed or alarmed. Such mixed approaches have yielded the desired results in many other countries. The project is a very ambitious one and requires the involvement of the common man, bureaucrats, NGOs and the governments at the Central, state and local levels alike. The project should also incorporate public-private partnerships in building and maintaining the necessary infrastructure. Maybe charging a nominal fee - for example a pay and use system for public toilets — would do no harm. The project may have been kicked off in a hurry but if right policies are framed even as an afterthought, it may well end in a hurrah!
|
|||||
The aftermath of the assassination The train continued its journey and reached Mathura at 7 am. The morning newspapers unfolded the story of anti-Sikh riots and killings in some towns, including Delhi. The train reached Tughalqabad, a small railway station on the outskirts of Delhi, at about 9 am, but stopped there and remained stationary. At about 11 am we noticed gangs of angry young men moving around, and coming repeatedly into the coaches looking for Sikh passengers whom they wanted to harm, and some of them even broke the windowpanes of our AC chair car so that they could peep inside. They warned that if any Sikh passengers were found to be sheltered in our coaches, then we too would be attacked with lathis, which they were brandishing. Anyhow, there were hardly any Sikh passengers on the train. Most passengers sat on their seats scared stiff and hungry. In between, there was a commotion on the platform. We were told that a violent group of attackers had found a Sikh passenger, on whom they poured kerosene, burning him alive. The atmosphere was unbearably tense. Then came a ray of hope for the weary passengers when the late Prof Madhu Dandavate, a former Railway Minister and a co-passenger, walked up and down the length of the train re-assuring passengers and announcing that the train would start soon. The train reached New Delhi station at 1.30 pm, and I saw scores of Sikh passengers huddled together at a platform under the protection of security forces and the police. But what happened to hundreds of others who could not protect themselves from the gory violence in Delhi had put the nation to shame, forever! Fortunately, there were no cell-phones in 1984 to propagate rumors, nor were any private TV channels to fan the discord, as is done profusely in the present times. The newspapers were barred by the government from writing any provocative editorials etc for a few days. Parts of Delhi remained under curfew for a few days, and I and my family proceeded to Punjab, our final destination for a wedding in the family, when the road traffic opened. The charred remains of rows of trucks were seen at Azadpur. In Punjab, the flow of information was highly restricted with troops patrolling to pre-empt untoward incidents. I shudder to think, God forbid, about the consequences if an incident like the one October 31, 1984, was ever to happen again with the social media around, the massive penetration of mobile phones, dozens of TV channels spitting venom to raise their TRPs, many sectarian gurus/deras encouraging divisive tendencies to retain their flocks, and some wily politicians spreading communal hatred just to get a few votes more!
|
|||||
Fading of a famous voice and ghazal A
few ghazal concerts were held through October this year, commemorating the birth centenary of Begum Akhtar (1914-1974). Not that the concerts were not well-attended, people came to relive memories of the legend that was Begum. But ghazal concerts have become non-events lately. In times when artistes find it hard to last in public memory for a decade, Begum kept her space reserved for a century. She was to ghazal what Pavarotti was to opera singing. If Pavarotti took opera concerts to a new scale, Begum Akhtar dressed ghazal in her own personality; of charm, intellect, depth and ecstasy, to render it inimitable. And the layered tapestry of saying soulful things musically. Great art carries the power to transform people; her music not only made an entire generation swoon and appreciate the sublime in art, the influence of her music produced many great poets. A poet like Kaifi Azmi felt his verse would be immortalised if rendered by her. Classical vocalist Pt Jasraj says he decided to pursue vocal music only after listening to her on a gramophone. The English Kashmiri poet Agha Shahid Ali did almost the unimaginable — writing ghazals in English— when he fell in love with Begum, his mother’s friend. Begum’s ghazal Ghazal has been the most powerful and enduring specimen of our composite culture as Ganga- Jamuni tehzeeb. To understand Ghalib, Meer, Momin, Daagh and Shakil Badayuni required a certain maturity, and to render it effortlessly in deceptively simple classical compositions to make them hummable called for genius. How did she see the ghazal? She said once, ghazal means dialogue, and you carry the voice of the poet to the audience... if you don’t listen to that voice you have no right to sing ghazals. She added a new dimension to not only ghazal, but its popularity in times when film music was at its best. She could sing only in one octave, unfazed, she redefined ghazal to make it her own. She came on the cultural scene of India when society was undergoing the subtle nuances of transition in time; she educed the flavour, language and music of a period that witnessed the end of a predominantly feudal era, when music was defined by the courts and tawayafs. She herself came from such a background and transformed herself many times over. A girl born as Akhtari Bai Faizabadi to a courtesan’s family, marrying a Barrister, leaving music to fit into her new role of respectability, falling sick and resuming music for her survival. Her personal quest for her true self was running almost parallel to the search of a country’s newly carved out identity. The turbulent times that led to the Independence of India, the enthusiasm, dreams, and frustrations of the post-Independence India charted out the emergence of a new era, these historic changes were changing the artistic sensibilities, and a highly reflective and sensitive artiste Begum Akhtar, resonated the changing sensibilities in her music, fusing strands of diverse cultural streams. She became a powerful conduit between classical poetry and an evolving modern audience, hungry for a new ideology; both political and artistic. This unique placing that she created by constantly raising her bar and with her direct interaction with the audience, helped her in popularising what would have remained niche music. She had an introvert mind; gifted with the presence of a scintillating performer, she created lasting impression on her audience. The consistent evolution of her technique is nothing short of a lifetime research, how she adapted her mehfil music to radio and recording studios, and never letting dilution seep in for the sake of popularity. No wonder, she was popular among the cognoscenti and the commoner alike. A long journey The ghazal originated in Iran in the 10th Century AD, most probably it grew out of the Persian qasida, a poem written in praise of a king, benefactor or a nobleman. Ghazal prospered in the Indian sub-continent around 12th Century AD when the Mughal influences came to India, and Persian gave way to Urdu as the language of poetry and literature. Thus poems written in praise of their rulers and masters evolved into romantic songs of unreciprocated love, and at times of mystical reflections. Many of the major ghazal poets were either Sufis themselves (like Rumi or Hafiz), or were influenced with Sufi ideas. Most ghazals can be viewed in a spiritual context, with the beloved being a metaphor for God, or the poet’s spiritual master. The 18th and 19th centuries are regarded as the golden period of the ghazal with Delhi and Lucknow being its main centres of growth. Ghazal made a journey through centuries, travelled across Afghanistan, Sindh, Punjab to Bijapur in the Deccan and came back to settle in the north of India in its present form. Fading sounds From 1970s through 90s ghazal became a unifying factor in the sub-continent. Now, with the demise of the composite culture, ghazal seems to be breathing its last. From its popularity in the days of the singing courtesans in the 19th century, there came a time in the last few decades when Ghazal became the most popular form of music in the entire subcontinent. In India singers like Jagjit Singh, Anup Jalota, and Pankaj Udhas helped its popularity, in Pakistan, Mehdi Hassan, Ghulam Ali and Runa Laila of Bangladesh created new friendship bonds through their music. If ghazal exercised such power over people, why is it becoming a non-entity among the popular genres of music? Even though online links like Rekhta offer English translation of the Urdu verse, but listening to a ghazal is not about understanding the text alone, it requires a deeper empathy with the intent of the poet. This explains the unprecedented success of this art form which also becomes its limitation. If Faiz and Iqbal could arouse an entire generation’s passions with their verse rendered by the best ghazal singers on both sides of the border, the same lack of connect with the language of the new generation spells its doom. When abbreviations substitute a language, one does not expect connotations, silences and punctuations that carry deeper meanings in poetry to strike a bond or communicate, especially to a generation whose cultural landscape has been almost bereft of poetry and art. After all ghazal is thought to be an Urdu form of poetry and since classical Urdu is becoming rarer and far less accessible to the general populace for reasons more political rather than cultural, it is only natural that Urdu ghazals are no longer enjoyed. People do not miss what they never had in the first place. So, ghazal is as good as non-existent to most music lovers today. A few might have stumbled upon Jagjeet Singh, who reintroduced ghazal to an entirely new audience by using western instruments with ghazals for the first time or Mehdi Hassan or Ghulam Ali at some point, it is likely many were not able to interpret the meaning owing to the lack of understanding of Urdu vocabulary, so, it does not stay in their memory. Demands of modernity Ghazal evolved as a result of fusion of cultural streams that came to India with the Mughals. It flourished and acquired a new Indian composite identity. Its fading is natural given the changed environment. But, what sets a dangerous trend is, artistes now work under self-censorship, dictated purely by the market, which leaves no room for any evolutionary approach to either the art or the audience. In her much celebrated novel Aag Ka Dariya, author Qurrat –ul- Ain Hyder, spans two and a half millennia, meditating on the continuum of the history and culture, tracing the journey of four characters through this long march of time. While times change; people, their quest, their longings and dreams continue. Culture, in a way, is accumulated human experience, which builds a framework of techniques of overcoming obstacles that come in the way of human evolution. The standards of our art reflect the level of our quest. Modernity, whatever it spells— good or bad — is a permanent state that replaces our former outlook; to poetry, art, music, literature and politics. The older may try to fight the change, it is irresistible. It sucks in the young. The old world is lost, with its splendour, its glory. It can be renegotiated, reinterpreted, if it is negotiable, if it sustains relevance it will survive. Else, it will be lost. One only hopes, ghazal finds one more Begum Akhtar to give it a fresh lease of life. The queen of ghazal
Cross-border love
|
|
| HOME PAGE | |
Punjab | Haryana | Jammu & Kashmir |
Himachal Pradesh | Regional Briefs |
Nation | Opinions | | Business | Sports | World | Letters | Chandigarh | Ludhiana | Delhi | | Calendar | Weather | Archive | Subscribe | Suggestion | E-mail | |
first reason for chances of it ending up like many other “Nirmal Campaigns” initiated by cities and states across the country is the lack of an overall policy framework , which is almost indispensable for such a formidable task. Ensuring wholesome public spaces necessitates a holistic approach. India generates approximately 0.1 million tonnes of municipal waste a day. This figure does not include industrial waste. Where does it go? And where should it go? The answer to the first is the real challenge to be overcome and in the answer to the second, most probably lays the solution. In 2000, a waste management policy by a high-level committee was submitted to the Supreme Court, which directed the statutory authorities concerned to comply with its recommendations. From the omnipresent mounds of garbage, it can be inferred that very few bothered to take note. No cleanliness campaign can succeed without a meticulously detailed solid and liquid waste management policy. A policy that entails not only an efficient collection system, segregation of waste, plants to convert the organic waste into manure, inorganic waste into fuel and recycle the recyclable. At a more advanced level, it should look into finding recyclable alternatives to non-recyclable materials. 
I was suddenly woken up by the midnight announcement on the PA system in the Mumbai-Delhi Rajdhani Express, “We have arrived at Ratlam station. This train is expected to reach its destination in time. But those passengers who wish to discontinue their journey may alight here. They will receive full refund of their tickets in cash from the ASM on duty”. It was the night of November 1, 1984, and I was travelling in a chair car from Mumbai to Delhi with my family. It quickly struck me that the law and order situation might have suddenly gone too bad in Delhi after the assassination of Indira Gandhi by her Sikh bodyguards the previous day. In the meantime, a few passengers who ventured to get off on the platform returned with the information that Ratlam town was under curfew due to disturbances; hence it was pointless to detrain. 
